A Productive Start to the Month

Our year has started off with so much happiness. We found out we are expecting a baby boy! Our two girls are pretty ecstatic to be blessed with a baby brother. We are planning on making the theme of his nursery nautical/ fishing -- I have been pinning ideas like crazy. What a change we will have, for the last 5 years our home has been adorned with pink, princesses and tutus. I think my husband will be happy to add a bit more race cars and dinos.

Even though I've been fending off a bad cold and have lost a majority of my voice, my energy levels are high and I've been whipping through quilt tops. In less than two weeks, I've created 3 quilt tops, completed one quilt, and create a mini art quilt. This is not my normal speed and it's been fabulous to get so much done.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you are pretty familiar with the Scrappy-Trip-Along. A great quilt pattern that utilizes scraps and comes together so fast; the tutorial is here. This block can be fashioned in various ways and they all look amazing. This quilt is for a friend of mine that just adopted a sweet, baby boy from Africa. His nursery is full of bright, happy colors. I did change the layout a bit before the final piecing, it was a bit dark in the lower right in this picture.

 Last year, my guild friend Elisa hosted a hexagon challenge using FreeSpirit's Bee's Knees fabric line. I created my baby quilt using a faux applique technique. Basically you sew the fabric to fusible interfacing and iron it on the base fabric. It achieves a clean applique edge, but does not adhere the fabrics flat together and it's super fast! 

This is the improv pieced back of the quilt. I love the bright colors and bee motif. This will be Baby Boy's first quilt.

The season 4 of Project Quilting started back up this week and the first challenge was "A square in a square.. ". I was inspired to finally create a mini art piece based on our church. Every Sunday I'm fascinated by the blue, green and purple stain glass squares featured in our parish. I've titled it "Church Squares".. Small art quilts by far are more challenging for me! This one measures a modest 8.5" square.

It was a fabulous excuse to break open into my new box of Inktense pencils and experiment. So much fun! This was on a very heavy canvas fabric. I colored the squares with the pencils first. Then mixed equal portions of water with fabric medium and painted in the squares. It is magical to watch the colored pencil come alive with a bit of medium. Once it dried I went back and filled in the other areas with Lumiere metallic paint.

 

Last by not least, I've retrieved this Valentine quilt top that was shelved last year. It was a simple and sweet construction, adorned with a bit of hand embroidery. I now have it loaded on my mid-arm, Fiona, and hoping to have it completed by late this evening.

Phew.. It's been a busy two weeks!

My Mojo, My Kiddo, and My Latest Quilts

No event or person should have the power to strip us of our joy. I was losing that joy at a rapid pace this past summer. There is something to be said for determination and seeking big, HUGE things. There is also something to be said in the quiet joys that feed our soul. I'm working on finding a balance between the two. It is safe to say my mojo is back. I'm hungry to quilt, to design, to share in the hopes of inspiring anyone that finds this blog. Thank you immensely for sticking around.. Really, thank you...

Kiddo is finally back to her crazy self. It was a rough recovery.. Ugh..Just in time to start her last year of conventional schooling. Wait, what? Yup, we have committed to homeschooling. I'm so excited to offer my girls this amazing new path. I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging about it, but if anyone is interested in learning more - please shout!

And on to some eye candy..

The finished baby Tetris quilt.. So much fun and it was pretty quick with the Accuquilt square die. The polka dot fabric came from a MQG swap last year. I love how my fellow quilting ladies are shared in this project.

 The polka dot binding makes me a little giddy.. My super talented friend, Ebony Love, has an amazing YouTube video on how to cut bias binding with the AccuQuilt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mItQREJSs30 She also has an amazing die cut book coming out soon!!

Here is a picture of the back. This is the first project I quilted on Fiona (my mid-arm).. and yes, I will finally post about her later this week.. Yay!

And on to my "Bricks and Blocks" Halloween quilt.. Oh I want to wrap up in this with a pumpkin latte outside in the crisp fall air. I changed the layout a ton of times. If anyone wants a tutorial, please speak up.. It is a simple quilt that is fabulous to showcase some fabric favorites.

 Like these tidbits..Seriously.. Hands down, my favorite Halloween prints ever.. That is saying something...

 The top is done and will go on Fiona later this week to be quilted with a light grey fleece back for extra snuggly fun.

Both quilts will be going up in the Etsy shop later this month, but if the Halloween one doesn't sell by October 15th..then it is mine baby..oh yeah!

Lots more posts this week and no more blogging breaks for the foreseeable future. I even have a super easy booster seat tutorial coming in a day or so.

Lots of love,
Me

A New Line Of Blankets

I've been adding a new line of flannel blankets to my Etsy shop. I will be adding several more throughout the month. They are a perfect gift for summer newborns - they are sewn without batting and are not too heavy. I hope you love them and if you have a specific request, just let me know!

Riding Through Flowers

Marching Elephants

Out with the Old and in with New!

Hope ya'll had a fabulous holiday & New Year's!

I'm so excited about this new year!

I'm hoping to really branch out at the shop and learn some new skills.

And can you believe I already feel behind!!

Valentine's Day feels just around the corner, and I have soo many ideas.

For my sweet Isa-pie, I will be making her a special quilt

since she's become quite the blankie queen.

I tend to fall in love with charm packs, but I'm tired of simply

sewing them side by side for a quick quilt.

After Googling for some ideas, I can upon this adorable

Stacked Coins Quilt

It's just the right amount of different for me to

not feel like I'm doing the same ol' thing,

but it doesn't look like an all time consuming masterpiece either.

Should have some pics of it for you in about 2 weeks...

Until then, enjoy a 15% discount off at the shop

Please mention "Sweetie Pie" in your checkout notes.